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Ok, so theres a house for sale, brand new in Flower's Plantation in Clayton. Never been lived in and has been on the market for around 300 days. The asking price is 180k and they are "desperate" to get rid of it. There is no washer, drier, or fridge. Minimum we would want is 175 and closing cost. What would you offer to assure that this would make it to that price? Thoughts, comments, ridicule?

Hey Cosby. I am not totally sure what you mean with your last part of the question. If the house has been on the market for that long you could offer somewhere in the 170 range with 4k back in closing costs. I am getting my closing cost number from what my mom's clients usually do when they want closing costs rolled into the price. So whatever price you offer, also include about 4k in closing costs to ensure total coverage for what the expenses will be. I hope that helps some. If not reword the question and I will give another crack at it.

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Cosby, what are the "comps" in the neighborhood? generally i would think you could offer 165 and if they are desperate and think you are interested they will come back with a counter offer. or hell they might take the 165. better to get laughed at than to offer too much. if the builder has been holding it that long he surely wants to dump it.

BTW Grasshopper, most new homes do not come with those appliances.

If you're looking at a house that's been on the market for nearly 10 months, I would expect that you could get it for a lot less than the 3% off of the asking price. See if you can get them to offer a smaller number, if not I'd start with 165K (or maybe less) and ask for closing costs to be included.

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Cosby, i seem to remember my wife said 15% either way of tax value is considered fair market price. but that may only be on resales. good luck.

Well apparently the cma of the other houses in the neighborhood are in the same range from when they were sold. Thing is, they sold within the past 6 months or so and were on the market for about half the time. I know that new doesn't always come with appliances, but we were going to see what we could get out of them. Sometimes you can get a fridge!

So I guess we're not gonna be neighbors after all??





Bret.


ps- my mom is a real estate agent in Raleigh- lemme know if you want me to ask her about it, or if you want to talk to her....

Also, make sure it isn't on top of an old Indian burial ground or something - maybe that's why it hasn't sold yet. I hear things can get really weird in those cases... or that's what I've seen in movies, anyway.

Bret, that house fell through at the beginning of the month. Kevin, I'm not so sure about that aspect, maybe I should look into it.

The gist of it is, the house is listed at 180k like I said. It's never been lived in, been on the market for ~300 days, .4 acres, nice upgrades, great neighborhood. They claim to be "desperate" like I said and want the house gone. I say, fine, lets lowball hard and get what we want for the house and see if anything gets thrown in extra. Worse that can happen, they laugh and counter. No loss. So my offer (which I know would not have had a snowball's chance in hell of surviving but that was the point) would have been, 165k, closing, frig, washer and dryer. That way there is more for them to work with to get rid of so we can get what we want. What does the woman and the realtor decide to do? Offer 170k, closing, and frig allowance. What's the counter? 180k and closing. Final back and forth ends up with 177k and 2500 for closing. Looks like they weren't desperate enough, or someone didn't put in the right initial offer like I told them to.

What do you think?

Cosby,

Here's a good documentary on what can happen if you build on an Indian Burial ground.

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Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

If you really like the house, it's right for you, and you're sick of looking and of the hassle, or if you have time constraints -- Go For It.

If you're flexible and have time, fire the realtor and go lowball the seller directly. Tell them to call you when they are ready to sell for $170k etc etc, your original offer. Don't be alarmed if they never call back, and keep looking for other houses

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

You can not do that, especially if you signed a contract with the realtor. Plus, the builder would laugh at you...the realtor works for the seller.

Every seller is desperate to sell But the offer sounds pretty much standard for new construction.

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Jim Pastorius
2008 Silverado VortecMax
1992 Camaro CMC#92
2002 BMW R1150R

2009 3rd Place CMC Mid-Atlantic Championship
2009 CMC Hyperfest Winner

Cosby,
If the builder/owner is really desperate to sell, no offer is too ridicules. My brother builds spec homes in New York; on a 180K home he'll have less than 130K into it. I guarantee that in NC this would be a conservative figure. Remember their money and or credit is tied up by this unit he may well be paying interest on a building loan. Make a super low offer 140K the realtor is bound by law to take this offer to the builder/owner. Who knows, he may accept it, if not you can always make another offer. Or he’ll counter. Or he’ll refuse and if you’re not willing to go higher you can look elsewhere. You have nothing to loose and everything to gain. You will have to offer earnest money with your offer to insure it is brought to the owner, this is refundable upon refusal of your offer.

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2004 C5(415whp,390ft/lbs),
1997C5,1997Trans Am, 1986 C4,
1990 Miata, 1976 MGB,1997 Protege, 1989 MR2

Where in Flowers Plantation? I live in the area in Becky's oldest subdivision (River Dell Chase). Is it well or city water? If it is a well/septic check to see if all is well (no pun intended) with it. Becky and her stand ins have been known to sell lots that don't perc or don't have water. Also, make sure you read all the covenants in the Homeowner's Assn regs. She made those tight and impossible to change.

PM me if you have any questions. My advice is figure out how much the house is worth to you relative to the market and don't go above that figure. It has been on the market 300 days, it will probably be on the market a few more so make them a lowball offer and make them sweat.

Rob

Looks like they caved. We got what we wanted (which we still may have been able to get it cheaper but now we'll never know). After we said no thanks, they came back and said they had a broker who could get us the money for the house because they work with people who have problems all the time. That made us laugh and in not so many words told them that. Less than 24 hours later, they made the deal. Maybe now I can rest again and start dealing with house stuff again instead of living with mom and dad

Rob, its in the Gardens. I think it's one of the first subdivisions (physically) off of 42 for Flower's. It's city water and sewer. We've got a copy of the covenants and nothing looks bad for anything that we want to do. We'll of course figure all that out later and deal with it at the time.

The one thing that I found out and didn't like to much was the pool that's across the street from us is expensive! $1500 to join plus $500 a year! Now if that's $500 for the whole family, then that's not so bad, but still that's a couple set's of tires!!